Kainyu no yu'utsu
by Kanadajin
Summary: Set several years in the future, Naruto is an ANBU with blood on his hands and terrors plauging his dreams. When he recives a strange mission from Tsunade, he is reunited again with old friends. No marysue stuff, fluff, slash or incest
1. Chimamire

Chapter One: Chimamire

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Disclaimer - as per usual, only the things I made up myself are my own.

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The nightmares woke him up again.  
Sitting up in bed he took notice of his surroundings. His sheets, damp with sweat, were twisted at the foot of the bed, and - strangely - the pillow was on the opposite side of the room shoved under the dresser.

Naruto sighed, getting up and padding across the wooden floor to dislodge the pillow from beneath the dresser. As he straightened up he saw his reflection in the mirror and grimaced.

Black bags hung under his red veined eyes. His hair, usually spiky and wild, was pressed flat against his head. He ran a hand through the yellow locks, sighing when he realized he needed a haircut. His hair was long enough to put back with a tie. He rubbed his chin, sighing again when he realized that he still didn't have the faintest signs of facial hair.

No wonder he was so often underestimated by his enemies, he looked like a genin.  
At least when he was with his ANBU squad the mask covered his shame, and only members of his team could make teasing remarks suggesting he'd yet to hit puberty.

The Konoha jounin made a face, turning away from the mirror and heading to the loo. He needed to brush his teeth, he could taste his own bad breath and the fuzz on his teeth was completely disgusting. No wonder Sakura turned him down last night at the hospital once he'd been released. A quick calculation told him that it'd been at least two weeks since he last had the time to take care of his personal hygiene. ANBU missions weren't all fun and games, sometimes you had to forgo important things like birthday parties, bathing, brushing your teeth, and worst of all, ramen.

Yawning as he leaned over the slowly filling sink, the events of the previous two weeks replayed through Naruto's head. They'd been extremely lucky, and no one had been killed. He himself had taken the only injury, and it wasn't all that bad despite what Sakura-chan and Tsunade-sama claimed.

He couldn't say as much for the Stone Ninja they'd come up against.

With sudden urgency Naruto plunged his hands into the water and began scrubbing at them furiously. He could still smell the metallic tang of blood, no matter how many times he washed them. He continued stubbing until the water was cold and pink with blood, he'd rubbed his hands raw yet again. Sakura-chan would kill him if she saw. Sighing he let out the plug and dried his hands on a towel before opening the medicine cabinet behind his mirror and pulling out a roll of white gauze and a jar of Hinata's salve.

The herbal lotion soothed his sore hands and filled the small washroom with the smell of sage and lilacs.

Once he'd finished bandaging his hands Naruto replaced the jar in to the cabinet and stared at himself in the mirror. Out of the corner of his eye he spotted a rubber band and used it to tie his hair back at the base of his skull. He looked very different. For one childish second he picked up the bar of soap from its frog shaped tray and used it to draw a goatee on his reflection in the mirror. He grinned for a moment, then dropped the soap back into its dish. He'd been told to report to the Hokage's office first thing in the morning, and one of the things that Naruto had learned with ANBU was punctuality. It still freaked out lots of people out when he showed up not only on time but anywhere between fifteen minutes to an hour early. Of course, that's only if they aren't already freaked out by the transformation of Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja into a serious eyed, if not aloof, ANBU squad member.

After locking up the small apartment he'd lived in since childhood, the black and grey clad ninja slowly walked down the near empty streets. A few neighbours waved from their windows as he passed, a few more slammed their shutters closed and pulled their children close. ANBU could be both a blessing and a curse.

Luckily he was right on time for the decided blessing half of the equation.

"Naruto-kun," Ayame waved to the blonde ninja as he entered the Ramen noodle shop. "What can we get you for breakfast today? Pork? Shrimp? Chicken?"

Naruto smiled and broke open his chop sticks. "Just pork today, Ayame-chan."

One free meal a day at his favourite Ramen shop seemed like a fair trade for being an ANBU, Naruto decided. Of course, it didn't happen right away. For the most part up until a year ago, two after he made it onto ANBU, Naruto still enjoyed the same appetite he had since he was a kid at the academy. When he saved Ayame's life during a raid, out of gratitude her father offered Naruto the complimentary free meal a day. Coincidentally it was during that same raid that Konoha's number one hyperactive ninja lost his appetite, as well as his hyperactive and sunny disposition.

The Konoha 11 were scattered that day...

Naruto looked down at his bowl and saw more than half of it was still there... but he wasn't hungry anymore. He hated to waste good ramen. Struggling, he choked the rest of the delicious meal down, but it just tasted like ash in his mouth. With a wave and forced smile to the ever lovely Ayame, Naruto took his leave and continued on his way to the imposing building with the symbol for fire written in bold red.

---

Shizune watched Naruto walking from the grand window of Tsunade-sama's office, concern rolling off of her in waves so strong that it was distracting the Hokage from her paperwork... though it was as ever a simple thing to do, distracting her from the piles and piles of paperwork she went at great lengths to avoid taking care of, that is.

"Its Naruto, isn't it?" Tsunade said, without looking up from the doodle of Jiraiya being squished by a frog she had been working on while Shizume wasn't looking.

The Hokage's apprentice nodded, fingering the needles hidden in her sleeves. "He's just so different, I keep expecting him to come bouncing in making loud demands and bragging about himself."

Tsunade set down her pen and rested her chin on her hands. "It will have been a full year tomorrow since the raid."

"And three years the day after since he made ANBU." Shizune frowned. She knew the statistics - ANBU had a life expectancy of five years in the field. Very few made it past the five year mark, and for very few reasons. Three to be exact. One: if they are killed or seriously wounded in battle and are unable to return to duty. Two: if they retire of their own free will or are discharged, and third: if or when they snap.

"I know what you are thinking, Shizune," Konoha's top ninja sighed, picking up her pen again and finishing the last piece of paperwork on the current pile she was working on. "And you're right. He's getting close to his breaking point. I'm taking him off ANBU."

Shizune turned around with surprise. "Will he go along with that? I know he's calmed down, but I'm envisioning the two of you yelling and things flying around the room." She eyed the priceless vase sitting near the edge of Tsunade's desk and slowly made her way over to it, removing it from such a careless position and setting it up on a high shelf.

Tsunade watched her grown up apprentice with amusement. "I imagine he'll protest, but he's exhausted and in no shape to be on serious missions right now... no, I have a better plan for him."

"What does this have to do with Sakura-chan, Lee-san and Kakashi-sama?" Shizune looked down at the small discs, now old and weathered from use, with the small images of the surviving original 'Konoha 11' as they were called, and their sensei's. The three she'd mentioned set apart from the others along with Naruto's.

Tsunade grinned almost maliciously, even as a knocking on the door announced Naruto's arrival, and held up a slip of paper with the words 'D Rank Mission' written in large scrawling characters across the top. "I thought a little reunion and R&R was in order."

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So... whatcha think so far? This is my first Naruto fic and I wrote it up one of my many insomniac nights. I have a few more chapters ready to upload, but after that I've hit a writer's block. Anyone with suggestions, feel free to toss them into the ring.  
Toots and thanks for reading.


	2. Kabu Kaiten

Chapter Two: Kabu Kaiten  
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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto and all that jazz...  
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_Tsunade grinned almost maliciously, even as a knocking on the door announced Naruto's arrival, and held up a slip of paper with the words 'D Rank Mission' written in large scrawling characters across the top. "I thought a little reunion and R&R was in order."_

"I can't believe Tsunade-sensei pulled me away from my research for this," Sakura grumbled as she hoisted the heavy bag onto her back. "A D-Rank mission! Good grief!"

Kakashi and Lee smiled as their pink haired friend continued to gripe about the unusual though not completely undesired turn of events. They knew she'd been working too hard, and this would be a perfect opportunity to get her out of the hospital's laboratories and library and out on a bit of a vacation of sorts.

Naruto's presence was highly unexpected, however.

Three out of the four jounins now present had served with ANBU, Rock Lee having retired shortly after the raid and the death of his beloved Gai-sensei, after serving four years. Kakashi, well, none of his students really knew anything about him still after all these years, but it had slipped out some many years before that the grey haired Sharingan user had been in ANBU for some time before retiring to teach the now infamous Squad 7, one of the top teams to come out of the legendary Konoha 12. Since then he'd rejoined for two years before retiring again shortly before Naruto made the squad. _is it just me or does that conjure the image of ANBU cheerleaders?_

Thusly, the previously mentioned two quite understood what their friend was going through, and Sakura knew second-hand the devastation being an ANBU had on the soul. She'd also seen the destruction caused by ANBU as a field medic. She had gone out with the squads, she wore the medic mask with its red cross on an emotionless noh face, but she'd never been a full-fledged ANBU. The kunoichi was glad of it, too.

"So Kaka-sensei," Naruto said, surprising the others as it was the first thing he'd said since their initial greeting, "what's with this mission? It's something genin could do with no trouble. Why send us?"

Lee smiled hopefully. He knew this was how Tsunade-sama hoped to have Naruto open up again, and already it seemed to be working. It wasn't the wild demands of the Naruto of the past, but it was a start.

Kakashi was thinking along the same lines, mind replaying the many times the furious genin stood up and brashly declared that this mission was too low for a great ninja of his class. After all, he would be the Hokage someday and how could he get stronger by going on boring missions like this? He smiled behind his mask and patted his now eye level in height student on the shoulder.

"Don't you recognize the name of the village we're going to?" He handed Naruto the paper again.

"Wave country. Island nation. No Shinobi village. Run by one Inari, a young leader from the Bridge Village." Naruto intoned automatically, the mission specifics memorized, without looking at the paper.

Sakura frowned. Surely Naruto remembered , it was their first real mission together as Team 7. She opened her mouth to say so but Naruto interrupted.

"Yes, I remember what happened, but its been years. Why send us back there now, its not like they will recognize or remember us anymore." He argued glumly.

Sakura shook her head and looked pleadingly at Lee who looked at Kakashi only to find the older jounin to be looking expectantly at him as well, over the pages of one of the Icha Icha Paradise books. One which, incidentally, had been written by Naruto during a mission long ago with Jiriya.

"Naruto-kun," Lee said brightly, clapping his friend on the shoulder, "lets charge back into the springtime of our youth and reclaim old friendships! How could Inari-sama forget you! They named the bridge after you didn't they?"

The blonde eyed the Taijustu master narrowly before shrugging with a small smirk. "I wonder if the kid still wears that dumb hat of his."

---

"Lee?"

Naruto crouched next to his friend who was thrashing in his sleep, poking him in the side until the older leaf nin opened his eyes widely.

"Naruto-san!" Lee looked around and sighed spotting Kakashi's silver head poking out from the third sleeping bag in the tent, fast asleep. "I'm sorry Naruto-san, was I snoring again?"

They grinned at one another for a moment remembering the many times Naruto had attacked Lee after being woken up by the latter's loud, chainsaw like snores. Of course things turned badly as Lee had the annoying habit of being able to fend off attacks in his sleep. Several times Lee woke in the morning to find Naruto in a tangled bloody heap and his fists strangely sore.

However, this time Naruto shook his head and pointed to the tangled sleeping bag around Lee's feet and held up a green pillow. Lee's green pillow.

"You have pretty good aim in your sleep, unless you intentionally threw this at my head," he said, handing the thing back to its owner and creeping back to the orange bag which had obviously not been slept in, choosing rather to sit crossleggedly on its surface and polish the katana he'd taken to carrying with him.

"Thank you," Lee rearranged his sheets and fluffed the pillow. "You don't need to sit up for watch, we're still within friendly borders."

Naruto shook his head and studied a slight chip on the sleek metal's surface.

"I can't sleep."

Lee frowned, but knew better than to say anything more. He still had bad dreams, infact it was one such dream that Naruto had woken him from. It'd taken a second to check that his beloved sensei, Maito Gai, wasn't still there haunting him in the waking world as well, bloody fingers pointing in cold accusation. He shivvered and pulled his blankets up over him in an attempt to ward off the cold which had nothing to do with the temperature. "Oyasuminasai."

---

Kakashi listened in on Lee and Naruto's short conversation, mask covering his frown.

It sounded like both his students were struggling with the demons that followed them in their sleep. If Naruto was at the insomnia stage, they were lucky he'd been pulled off of ANBU's active duty roster when he had. After insomnia came something worse than nightmares or wide eyes. Undreaming sleep. Guiltless, uncaring dreams. A sign of an unhealthy mind.  
Guilt could kill your soul.  
Guiltlessness devoured your soul and went on its way leaving a path of unnoticed, unmourned bodies in its wake.

After waiting awhile to see if Naruto would fall asleep, Kakashi closed his eyes and drifted off into a guiltless sleep of Icha Icha girls running from Jiraiya and Sharingan eyes swirling as rocks tumbled down atop of him.

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Yeah... I know, not much action going on yet. Its gonna be a few chapters before the killin starts. ;)  
R&R please, I'm always looking for suggestions, critiques and even a few flames to keep me entertained.  
Toots,

Kana


	3. Katami

Chapter 3: Katami  
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Disclaimer: yadda yadda yadda I OWN EVERYTHING...or at least I would if I had all the money in the world.  
But since I don't lets just keep on with the assumption that I own hardly anything at all, and that one of the  
things I don't own is Naruto. However I do own a really crappy car.  
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Tsunade stood near the memorial stone, eyes glazen as she read over each and every name, a tear falling each time she read the name of someone she'd known. There were so many. Far too many.

Prominant among those were Sarutobi-sensei, Dan, her dear little brother, and the two newest additions, Genma and Iruka.

Truth be told, it was the latter of the pair's death that had seen a huge drop in the moral of Konoha.  
Iruka, the youthful and ever smiling chounin. Iruka who'd befriended every student he taught. Iruka who'd held the hearts of every kunoichi in the academy and had continued on being the object of teacher-crush for students well on into genin and chounin ranks.  
Iruka who'd fallen in love with Shizune.  
Iruka who'd been Naruto's first and fastest friend.

The Godiame Hokage let her head fall forwards, pigtails clinging to her back as she stood silently in the rain, fists clenched.  
Damn Orochimaru!  
Damn Atakutsi!  
Damn Uchiha!

----  
One Year Prior  
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"Hokage-sama!" Genma burst into the council meeting, sweat dripping down his face as he ran to her side. "We're being attacked!"

The sudden uproar of councilors doing what they did best - argue - drowned out Tsunade's voice until she put her fist through the ornate, solid oak desk infront of her and sent her best 'Shut up now before this happens to your skull' glare to the others in the room.

"Now," she said a little breathlessly, still enraged at the councilors, to the terrified jounin before her. "who is it and what is our status?"

"It looks like Cloud and Stone nin attacking the south, east, and west gates." Genma held out a messy scrap of paper, written in scrawling code. "ANBU squad Iwa spotted them early, but were overpowered by enemy ANBU teams, one managed to make it back with this message."

Shizune stepped forwards and took the paper, eyes widening and she read.

"What does it say?" One of the counsilors asked in a demanding voice, but was silenced by a look from Tsunade.

"Iwa reports three mixed batallions of Cloud and Stone nin, as well as what appears to be a small unit of Samaurai and another of civillian soldiers." Tsunade's apprentice read outloud.

The room was near sickeningly silent. Genma was hopping from foot to foot from the tension and Tsunade waved a hand at him. "Give the order to evacuate the civillians to the bunkers." She said in dismissal and the Jounin disappeared in a poof of smoke.

"Councilors I suggest you get to the bunkers right away with your families." She turned her back on them in dismissal and faced Shizune, taking the paper away from her assistant. "Send out whatever message birds we can to our allies and recall all teams to Konoha."

The young woman nodded with a quick "Hai" and sprinted out of the room, lingering council members getting out of her way as she charged through. Tsunade watched her leave briefly before turning to look out her window. Already she could spot the signs of combat, smoke rising and the blurs of movement as countless shinobis raced across the rooftops to join the fight and defend their city.  
Before leaving for the hospital where she would, undoubtedly, be needed, the Fifth Hokage of Konoha looked down at the note written in Rock Lee's handwritting. Genma had said that Iwa was overpowered and only one made it back... did that mean Iwa, Konoha's secondmost elite ANBU team was gone?

The paper crumpled in her clenched fist as she cursed the day she ever took this job.

----

Yes, I know, its short, but its 3 am and I have a class at 7 so suck it up and wait for the next chapter... ;)  
R&R and continue with the suggestions.  
Ta,

Kana


	4. Fuminsho

Chapter 4: Fuminsho  
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Disclaimer: ditto last time... and for those of you who caught the chapter title,  
I'm not refering to the characters, I'm refering to me. Its 4am and this is the second chapter I've written  
and posted tonight. I have class in a few hours... I think I'm just gonna pull an all nighter.  
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One Year Prior  
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Lee dodged yet another wave of kunai, moving in perfect coordination with the other green clad ANBU at his back. Sweat rolled down his face, puddleing in the spots where his eagle mask rested on his cheeks and brow, and dripping down his neck. He'd been in trickier situations before, but there were just so many enemy shinobi that it seemed as though he had an eternally fresh foe.

They'd been battling for at least thirty minutes by Lee's estimation, and already he saw the forms of two fallen comrades, ANBU cloaks blood-soaked and singed. Their masks had been pulled off of their faces and broken in two. Summoning all of his courage he ripped his eyes away from them and concentrated on the living. Six other masked Konoha-nin battled fiercely against the hundreds they'd come up against.

"Lee!"

He spun to see one ANBU rising up in the air, scrolls twirling about her as a sea of kunai, shiruken, and exploding notes descended upon the enemy, taking many out, but for each Cloud-nin that fell it seemed as if four more appeared. Stone-nin as well. The ANBU to his back wearing a matching eagle mask clasped his shoulder and they leapt out of the fight and into the higher branches of the forest canopy.

"Lee, you're the fastest here, you need to take the message to Konoha and warn them." Gai pulled off his mask and wiped sweat off his brow and grinning widely at his favourite student and team mate before pulling it back down over his face.

"But Gai-sensei, this is a hopeless situation here, we need to withdraw our full team!"

The eagle mask shook back and forth. "No, you go on ahead and we will stall these ones for the time being."

Lee's eyes widened but four years of ANBU had taught him to accept orders no matter what they were, "Hai, Gai-sensei! I'll be back as soon as I've alerted the village!"

The Taijustu master could almost see his teacher's smile behind the mask. "Go, Lee, and don't forget to never betray your comrades!" With that he jumped back down into the fray, a green blur of movement.

Lee quickly dropped his heavy training weights and with a speed that beat the eyes of the attacking shinobi, he sprinted with all haste to the Village's walls with two celestial gates open.

---

The mask in his hands felt heavy, as though it were made with lead instead of plaster.  
Slowly he laid it down in front of the framed picture of its former owner, tears welling in his eyes as he said his final goodbye to the man who'd been the shinobi's role model, his mentor, his second father.

A hand clasped his shoulder and he turned to see blue eyes shining sadly at him from behind a fox mask.

Inquiring, sympathetic, and teary eyes looked on from the crowd gathered there to attend the mass funerals taking place that day. The black crowd watching the masked group mourning the fall of so many of their own. Lee couldn't stand it.

He stepped past Naruto, hesitating, then turned back.  
Swallowing his courage he pulled off his mask and gently set it next to Maito Gai's.  
Tears streamed down his cheeks as he walked past those watching eyes, through the sea of black clad mourners, and away from the sad scene. He kept walking, wandering the empty streets, visiting the old haunts where Gai's voice could almost still be heard echoing a hearty laugh, loud encouragement, or ridiculous promise to walk around the city one hundred times on his hands.

Finally he found himself on the training grounds where it had all started.  
Where Lee first learned to open the inner celestial gates, and the Lotus fighting technique.

In sudden despair he crumpled up onto the ground sobbing, pulling off his black ANBU robes and hugging them to his chest.

Screw the springtime of youth, he thought angrily, why did you have to open the Death Gate, sensei?

Sniffing heavily, he stood and threw the robes away from him into the trees.  
Screw ANBU, he thought as he took up his fighting stance and began punching the practice posts.  
When he'd punched through all the posts in his anger he moved on to the surrounding trees next, pulverising them with his fists.

When he'd worn himself out, several dozen trees later, Lee stared at his bloody hands and fell to his knees.

"Forgive me, Gai-sensei," he cried, clutching his head in his hands, rocking back and forth. "I betrayed my friends and did not return when I was needed most! Please forgive me!"

Arms wrapped around his shoulders and he collapsed into the caring embrace. Looking up he pleaded into her green eyes, "Forgive me!"

"Shhhh," Sakura kissed his forehead and held him close. "Its not your fault, Lee-san."

Burying his face in her shoulder he clenched his eyes shut and cried.

---  
Present  
---

Sakura couldn't sleep.  
Peeking out of her tent she could see the outline of Naruto sitting up, awake as well.  
Sighing she crawled back under her covers, but didn't dare shut her eyes. Every time she did she saw Iruka, Gai, Genma, Ibiki, Kaido, Ten-ten, and so many others lying before her, eyes begging for her to say it would be alright. For her to pull a miracle out of the air and save them.

She shivered and pulled the blankets up around her to ward off a chill that had nothing to do with the temperature.

* * *

Yep, second post of the night/morning... I can hear the people in the apartment above waking up... maybe I should try and catch some sleep... ugh. I wonder if my characters are going through insomnia because I am... or if its vise versa. hm.

toodles,  
Kana


	5. Jumen

**Chapter 5: Juman Rakka Ha No Tatakai**

**Disclaimer:** we all know what needs to be said, but atop of that: if anyone actually knows japanese,  
did I completely screw the title up? I have no idea about Japanese grammar other than  
that everthing is backwards from english. _sigh_. Its supposed to say:  
The Battle of Ten Thousand Falling Leaves  
but as I mentioned above, I suck at grammar therefore the Japanese above most likely says something like:  
The Fight of Twenty Flaccid Penises  
_Sigh._

**_HAS UNDERGONE EDITING!!! PLEASE READ!!!_**

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_**NOTE: Picture done for this by my split personality, Avdalen, at Deviant Art. Sometimes I write, sometimes I draw.**  
It's titled 'In The Mist', but it seems I can't post a link on here so if you want to look, you can  
search for it on the site. :)_

_

* * *

_

A shuriken whistled through the air and embedded itself in the bark of an ancient tree. Right next to where Sakura's pink head was resting. Without opening her eyes she pulled it out of the tree and pitched it back down at Naruto who was now chomping on the apple he'd caused to drop from the tree.

"Watch where you're throwing that thing, baka." She lazily scolded him, unwilling to move too much from her favourite sun soaking spot.

"Geez, Sakura-chan," Naruto said in a voice that mimicked his own at twelve years old, "you're so cold! Maybe I should do some sort of fire justu to help you get warm."

Her green eyes opened and the medical nin glared the ANBU nin down in his tracks. "Don't even think about it, Naruto."

The blonde grinned and finnished off his apple, throwing the core out into the dense foilage around them. Sighing he laid back on the ground and looked up at the blue sky peeking through the forest's canopy. Out here near the edges of Konoha's border, the paths got narrower and the bush thicker. He hated waiting.

It was always his weak point - though once behind that fox mask he could beat a goldfish in a blinking contest. Amazing how your personality completely changes when you don the mask of an ANBU. He'd never been able to fully understand it himself, but once while on a trip to visit a friend in a neighbouring village, he saw a street performance where the actors wore masks, and when someone's mask was taken off, they dropped to the ground as if dead - so they couldn't be seen without the mask. He watched the actors in a comedy, as they passed off the masks from one to another - and although the actor remained the same, their personality and character changed with the mask they put on. The woman who had been playing a small child changed masks with a man who was playing a villian and no one could guess that that man wasn't a child, and that woman wasn't a villian once they had on the masks.

Thats the closest he could ever find to an analogy.

"Naruto?"

He shook his head and looked up at one of his oldest friends. "Hai, Sakura-chan?"

"Are you done ANBU for good?"

Naruto shrugged. "It wasn't my choice, Tsunade-obachan forced me out."

Sakura plucked an apple from the tree above her and watched as Naruto figited and played with his half finished apple. Every few seconds he would stop and listen, sniffing the air and scanning the trees. He was still in ANBU mode, despite his lax appearance. "Whats up?

"Lee and Kakashi-sensei have been gone for quite some time don't you think?"

"Yes," she looked at her watch, "But thats to be expected when giving directions to travelling merchants. They usually want to chat for a bit, try and sell some wares, and generally annoy you for as long as they can. That and they're coming from an odd direction so the paths are twisted and hard for civillians to navigate properly."

As she said that a muscle in his jaw twitched and the two shinobi met eyes. Sakura saw the flame in them and nodded. They were gone in an insant leaving only a slightly scarred tree and a chewed apple core.

* * *

Kakashi sighed as Lee and the younger members of the merchant caravan animately spoke about the wonders of something called the Curry of Life, while the older men and one hag pestered him with questions about the state of Konoha's market. However, his eyes were glued not on the little orange book tucked away in his pocket but the merchant's pretty daughter that was hiding shyly behind a painted fan. 

Interesting, he thought, his eye crinkling as theirs met and she shied away with a giggle, but too young for him.

These merchants seemed very interested in chatting with the two Leaf nin, at first this had roused his suspicion, but after he heard their story it all seemed to make sence. Apparantly in the last three villages they've stopped at have been cold if not outright hostile towards outsiders, since a serries of raids by criminals caused much damage and a few deaths. Due to that reason, they decided to take side roads to Konoha, and they hadn't seen anyone on the paths for about three days.

It was completely understandable that they'd want to talk with the first humans they'd seen in days.

Three chakra signals were nearing them.. Kakashi frowned, two he recognized as Naruto and Sakura, but the third, coming from the opposite direction, was strange... no, it was familiar, but strange for it to be there.

* * *

Naruto and Sakura dropped down into the clearing at the same time as a ANBU. 

"Yo," Naruto waved warily to the ANBU, and glared at Lee and Kakashi. "You're late. Whats up?"

"Nothing, they're just lost, Naruto-kun," Lee met his glare before turning to the ANBU. "Whats up with you?"

"Kakashi-sensei, I'm to pass on a message to you from the Fifth."

Said ninja raised his eyebrow in suprise, but mildly. "Oh? Should we move to a more secure location, Hyuuga-sama?"

"Hai."

They were both gone in an instant leaving behind the startled merchants and three slightly put off ninjas. Sakura sighed. This was just like back when they'd been genin in team 7, Kakashi got the messages and they stayed back to babysit the civillians.

"For once I'd like to have an ANBU sent with a message for me."

Naruto shook his head, "you have had ANBU sent with messages for you before."

Sakura winced at the memories that began piling up, "none that I've been happy to recive though."

Naruto remained silent, something that would have been unexpected of him in the years past, but somewhere along the path he'd learned a little thing called tact. Slowly he reached into his pocket and gripped the throwing stars he had hidden in the lining. ANBU showing up impromptu was never a good sign. Especially who they sent.

"Young man," One of the old merchants approached him and he forced himself to relax, "would you like to view our wares? We have an especially wonderful line of goodies... licorices that turn your mouth blue, chewing candies that explode with silly sting, whistling suckers..."

Sakura and Lee broke out into wide grins as they saw that michevious spark alight in their friends' eyes. Kakashi was going to get it this time... Sakura pulled out her purce and eyed the exploding silly string candies.

* * *

Kakashi eyed the blue kitten mask warily. 

"Whats the nature of this message that Hokage-sama sent an ANBU rather than a bird?"

"She was afraid of interception, Kakashi-sensei, however I do not know the contents of the message."

Cracking the seal on the scroll and unrolling it, Kakashi's grey eye scanned the contents of the message, and then looked up at the ANBU with a grin. "Congratulations, Hinata-san, you've been reassigned."

Kakashi could feel her suprise as she grabbed the scroll he held out for her to view. "What?" She read over the scroll then rolled her eyes and tossed it back to him. "Nice try, Kaka-sensei. Do you have any objections to your secondary assignment?"

The silver haired ninja shook his head seriously and glanced back in the direction of Konoha, "I guess this is why she sent three ANBU and a medic on this mission... I'm glad though she pulled the wool over the others' eyes, I should be able to handle this myself without them being cheated out of their vacation."

Hinata nodded and smiled beneath her mask. "Good luck, Kakashi."

* * *

Kakashi dropped back down onto the path where the merchants and the others were still chatting. It appeared that Sakura had bought something from them, as she stuffed a parcel into her pack and Naruto watched on with amused eyes... they turned to him and sparkled mischeviously. Kakashi was suddenly back on high alert. 

He had the sudden burning desire to know what it was that Sakura had purchased, and a teacher's intuition told him that whatever it was, it would have some use in a prank aimed at him. Like the time he woke up to discover his left eyebrow - the one he kept covered by his forehead protecter - shaved off. Or when he woke up with wet sheets and his hand in a bowl of water. Or when his kunai exploded with silly string. Or when Naruto used Sexy no Jutsu to distract him while his devious accomplice and student in the pranking arts, Konohomaru, used an ingenious jutsu that made his furniture all stick to the ceiling.

Shaking his head to clear out the clutter, Kakashi merely waved to the merchants and announced that it was time for the shinobi to get moving or they wouldn't make it to the next town before sunset.

"Watch out for the owner of the hotel if you plan on going there," the leader of the merchants warned, "last time we stopped there she overcharged and threatened having us arrested if we didn't pay. Needless to say we skipped that town on the way here."

Naruto, Sakura, and Lee all waved and said their goodbyes, assuring the merchants that they would be quite fine.

With that the merchants went back on their way towards the Village and the four shinobi disappeared into the trees.

**TBC... sorry for the shortness and long wait.  
EVERYONE - I've edited this chapter so if theres things happening you don't remember, thats why.**

**toots, Kana  
**


	6. Giri

Chapter 6: Giri

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Disclaimer: Byaaaaaa! (That which you don't recognize to be from the Animated serries or Manga comics is mine.)

* * *

In the town the four ninja found their lodgings with ease, as it was the only hotel there. Sakura and Lee took one room while Kakashi and Naruto agreed to share one. The older ninja immediately laid down and was asleep in moments, but Naruto had other plans.  
Once Lee was snoring loudly enough they could be assured he wouldn't wake up, the two team mates snuck out of their rooms and went downstairs to the small, smoky, and unusually crowded bar. Crowded but quiet, it seemed everyone was content to drink their black clouds away in solitude. They managed to disuade a drunk from hogging a corner table and commandeered if for themselves, ordering sake and hard liquor from the waitress.

"Where you from," she asked warily as she set the bottles down on their table. "Locals around here ain't too friendly towards strangers."

Naruto, using a techniqe he learned from Kakashi, observed the patrons without moving his head. A cold shivver ran up his spine in anticipation of... something. Unnoticably his left hand moved to scratch his knee and returned to his lap with a sizeable handfull of senbon needles.

Sakura, on the other hand, smiled and raised her cup in a toast, "We're from Konoha."

Apparantly this wasn't as good an answer as either shinobi might have expected.  
Three of the largest, gruffest looking men in the bar immediately jumped up and were standing defencively around the waitress. Sakura blinked and noticed from the corner of her eye a trio of needles raised in anticipation of being impaled in the mens' throats. Sighing she caught Naruto's hand and pulled it under the table.

"Whats the matter?" She asked quickly, kicking the blonde under the table. "Why are you suddenly so hostile?"

A smaller man appeared from behind one of the goons, red slashes painted across his cheeks. "You are Konoha shinobi?"

Naruto pushed his hair back that had been hiding his cherished leaf forehead protector. "You have a problem with it, yaro?"

"No problem, just a proposition." He snapped his fingers and someone appeared with a chair and he sat down at their table. "Doubtless you've heard that our little village here has been the target of villians in the past few months. We've lost several good men defending the town, and many hapless civillians who were in the wrong place at the wrong time have died aswell."

Sakura's eyes softened. "Thats horrible! Why haven't you asked for help from Konoha?"

Naruto didn't like what he heard about these bandits and his blood boiled when the man mentioned civillians being killed, but why were they telling all this to them? He had a pretty good idea why, actually, but his suspicion wouldn't allow him to think that this was merely a request for help. Something else had to be up.

"We have," one of the men butted into the conversation. "I appoligize for my rudeness, Ranzatsu-sama. I was on a party that went to Konoha, but no help came from it."

That caught both shinobi's attention. Someone asked for help and were ignored?

"Who did you speak to? Did you speak to the mission's council? The Hokage?" Sakura demaned.

"None of those, we spoke to guards on the trail into Konoha and they said they would deliver the message and the payment to the council and have a genin squad dispatched to take care of the bandits." His jaw clenched, "We had collected all the money our town had left to get help, but nothing came."

The short man, whose name was Ranzatsu, leaned back and folded his hands together. "So you see, shinobi, we are owed by Konoha... you will take on this mission that your council and Hokage ignored."

"I can't believe that your request was ignored... more likely those weren't actual guards that you saw. We just came from those paths and the only other humans we detected were a band of merchants. There are no guards in these parts of the woods... you must have fallen for a ruse the bandits were pulling." Sakura said thoughtfully. "But we are already on a mission right now, we would not be able to assist just now. On our way back we would surely help, right Naruto?"

Naruto shrugged, "we've been going slow, we could take care of this tomorow morning and be gone by noon. No time lost."

"Take care of what by noon," someone said from behind the wall of goons.

A grey head of spikey hair flashed into the corner between Naruto and Sakura and leaned in close with eye crinkled in a grin. "Konban wa, Sakura-chan!"

The wall of goons shifted in suprise, and the small man sitting at the table choked on the senbon he'd been chewing. "How did you do that?"

Kakashi looked up at the man as if he hadn't noticed him there before. "Do what?" He turned to Naruto, "why didn't you let me know you were going for drinks? I woke up and you weren't there... abandoning your sensei?"

The man at the table let out a crude chuckle and the goons followed in suit. "Ohhh, it looks like we've caught the ninja at a bad time, we're interrupting a lover's quarrel." Ranzatsu didn't see it coming until he found himself on the floor with Naruto and Kakashi's fists about to crush his skull. Luckily for him Sakura appeared and bashed the two male shinobi upside the head.

"Uzumaki Naruto! Hatake Kakashi! Smarten up!" she shouted as they rubbed their bruised heads and cowered by the goons as she shook her fists menacingly at them.

"Scary!" most of the men in the room cried, including Naruto.

"Shut up!" Sakura growled at Ranzatsu. "You need help, and we aren't busy so we'll help. You two," she rounded "cut it out or I'll beat up your sissy ANBU butts!"

"HAI!"

* * *

OOC: A little humor there for ya. Sorry, this won't be Kakaruto or whatever that stuff is called - I already have said no slash or fluff in this. sorry also that its taken so long to post. toodles,

Kana


	7. Odoshi

Chapter Seven: Odoshi  
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Disclaimer: I don't own Naruto... and apparantly I give in to threats easily. LOL.  
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Naruto grumbled as he and Lee walked down the road towards where the crooks were suspected to be encamped.

"This plan sucks," he said waving the ornamental fan infront of his face irritably, "why did we have to do this?"

"This is Sakura-chan's big plan," Lee argued confidantly, "I think this is a great way to lure the criminals in."

Naruto eyed the green-clad ninja with disdain. "You just like to henge as a girl."

The two ninja, or, two fancily dressed women as they appeared to be, walked on arguing in strangely feminine voices. It'd taken ages for Kakashi and the few civillians who saw their henges noses to quit bleeding, and even longer for them to quit laughing at the two as they set out in their disguises down the road with Kakashi and Sakura trailing.

"Well you're the one who came up with this jutsu," Lee declared as a final blow, "besides, you're the one creating this henge."

Naruto stuck out his tongue at Lee, a final act of childishness before his hand wipped out and stopped Lee in his tracks. "They're up ahead, either side of the road. Ten men."

"Cowards! Waiting in the bushes to ambush civillians." Lee growled, but unlike what his 14 year old self would have done, he didn't charge into the ambush calling the goons out, declaring that he would beat them up. And neither did Naruto. Both kept on their way, walking slowly as if they hadn't a care in the world, or the slightest inkling of what they were walking into.

When the culprits attacked, all Naruto could comment on was how increadibly sloppy they were.

"Ladies," a large man with an ugly face dropped down from a tree infront of the two 'women', "I'll be taking your valuables now, and if you make a fuss we'll be 'taking' more than that."

Naruto and Lee made little gaspy sounds and acted kerfuffled. "But theres only one of you and two of us," Lee said, holding up his fan as though to defend himself with. The man laughed and raised his hand to mouth and whistled loudly. The other crooks jumped out and surrounded them.

"Now," the man said with a laugh, "you'll be turning over your purces."

Lee reached into the purce he carried and smiled, "I learned this trick from Ten-ten..."

Leaping into the air at the same time that Naruto broke their Henge, Lee wipped out a string and shuriken flew out in several directions, hitting six of the criminals. Naruto clapped his hands and bushin'd, creating two clones for each crook and uncerimoniously tackling them. It was over before it really began, and the clones had the men pinned to the ground by the time Sakura and Kakashi dropped down beside them.

To both Lee and Naruto's dismay, their companions were calmly eating senbon treats.

"What? You were eating!?!?" Naruto jumped up and shouted at Kakashi, "you were supposed to help."

Sakura shrugged, "you didn't need it. Genin could have cleaned these bozo's up."

Naruto steamed, "this was your idea!"

"I just wanted to see if you two would actually go in drag. Kakashi bet you wouldn't."

Lee and Naruto turned to the grey haired nin who waved his senbon back at them and grinned, "I owed her lunch."

Lee barely managed to restrain Naruto.

"Hey," the leader of the crooks spoke up from where he was pinned, "maybe we can come to some sort of arrangement. We've collected immeasureable wealth in our racket, what say we split you in a cut and you let us go. You can even join up with us."

He didn't get a chance too talk much longer as one of Naruto's bushin's punched him in the jaw.

"Baka, we just kicked your asses and we didn't break a sweat. Why in our right minds would be join up with you," Sakura rolled her eyes at the man and pulled a rop out of her bag. "Narutos, tie them up and we can dump them in the village."

"That won't do any good," the leader cried out, making the nin pause. "We own on of their boss' top lieutenants. We'll sack the town before they can say 'boo'."

Kakashi appeared behind the man and poked his head over his shoulder. "Oh really now?" He looked over at Sakura, nodding. She grinned, grabbed one of Naruto's bushin and wound up for a punch. The clone yelped and tried to claw away, and the last the gang's leader saw of it was Sakura's fist coming down and a plume of dust coming up. When the dust settled he gulped and started talking.

Sakura stepped out of the sizeable crater she'd made and smiled at Naruto. "Darn, I was hoping that would've been you."

Naruto shivvered. "Thats cold, Sakura-chan."

* * *

_TBC - I just ran out of creative juice for tonight...aka rum... I'll finish later. Now I have to study for my art history final, rehearse my lines for the play I'm in on thursday, write a paper due tuesday, about 20 small projects due tuesday, work on a major project due monday, another major project due wednesday, and... hmm... actually I think thats it! Oh, no, wait, I have two reviews due thursday too. dangnabbit.  
Also, sorry for the shortness and the anti-climacticness. Forgive me, its 12 am and theres been a car alarm going off for two hours now. GAHHH!!!  
_

Toodles,

Kana


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